Proposal by the Ohio State University High Energy Physics to join the BABAR Collaboration
Introduction: The Ohio State University high energy physics group consisting of Profs. Gan, Honscheid, Kagan, and Kass proposes to join the BABAR collaboration. For the past decade the OSU group, as members of the CLEO collaboration, has played an important role in expanding our knowledge of the physics of heavy quarks and the tau lepton. We believe that the study of e+e- collisions in the Υ(4S) region at high luminosities still offers an extremely attractive and rich physics program and therefore joining BABAR would be a natural extension of our previous CLEO effort.
The OSU BABAR Group: Our goal is to have a group that can significantly contribute to all aspects of the BABAR experiment. We envision a group size consisting of four faculty members, three Post-Docs, and three graduate students. The fraction of research time committed to BABAR over the next five year time period for the members of the OSU group is given in the Table 1. Richard Kass will be the OSU group’s contact person.
As members of the CLEO collaboration it has been our tradition to maintain a strong presence at the experiment. For example, for several years we had four Post-Docs and five students resident in Ithaca New York, site of the CLEO experiment. As members of BABAR we would continue with this mode of operation. Thus we expect our Post-Docs and students to be resident at SLAC for significant amounts of time, if not permanently.
It may turn out that one or more of our current Post-Docs would want to move from CLEO to BABAR. We are exploring this option. If this is not possible, then we would start advertising our three Post-Doc positions as soon as we become members of BABAR.
“Student a” in Table 1 is already a member of our research group working on another project. Over the course of the first year he would become 100% time on BABAR. We would recruit the other two graduate students starting this summer. Table 1: OSU group member’s fraction of research time committed to BABAR for the next five years.
Year 1 Year 2 Year 3 Year 4 Year 5 K. K. Gan 40 40 40 40 40 Klaus Honscheid 70 60 50 50 50 Harris Kagan 60 60 60 60 60 Richard Kass 80 80 80 80 80 Post Doc A 100 100 100 100 100 Post Doc B 100 100 100 100 100 Post Doc C 100 100 100 100 100 Student a 50 100 100 100 100 Student b 100 100 100 100 100 Student c 100 100 100 100 100
Possible OSU contributions to BABAR: Our two-day visit (3/18-3/19/2002) to SLAC was filled with many useful discussions concerning how the OSU group could fit into BABAR. We are interested and have the resources to take on a major project. In the current phase of the experimental program, however, it might be better to contribute to a number of smaller projects. With this in mind we have identified three areas where we believe we could have an immediate impact:
1. Addition of a Monte Carlo production site We would setup and make available to the collaboration a farm of approximately 50 new PC/Linux CPUs, with several Tbytes of disk space. As part of our service duties we would operate this farm in coordination with the overall BABAR Monte Carlo production system.
2. Radiation Monitoring (SVTRAD) The silicon photodiodes currently used to monitor the radiation dose received by the vertex detector are suffering from radiation damage and a project to rebuild this system has been started. Sensors based on CVD diamond are considered as a possible replacement. Since we have great expertise in this area (Harris Kagan is Co-spokesman for CERN’s RD42, CVD Diamond Radiation Sensors) this would be a natural project for us to get involved in.
3. Level 3/DAQ development and operation Our group has extensive expertise in data acquisition systems. In particular, if one of our current Post-Docs decides to move with us from CLEO to BABAR we would be able to provide immediate help in this area.
The above list was the result of a short, two-day visit. Clearly, there must be other important topics that we could contribute to. As we learn more about BABAR we anticipate that members of our group will take on other or additional responsibilities. We are also interested in future upgrades to the SVX system.
In the area of physics analysis our group is interested in pursuing several avenues of research including rare B-meson decays, charm mixing, charm lifetimes, and rare and forbidden τ- lepton decays.
Other Research Commitments: Once accepted in BABAR we will phase out of CLEO as soon as possible, in a responsible manner. Our commitment to maintain the CLEO III hardware (DAQ, Silicon Vertex Detector) will end with the current Y resonance run (Summer 2002). Three senior students will finish their theses based on CLEO II and CLEO III data within 12 – 18 months. Two of our three CLEO Post-Docs will leave this summer.
BABAR will be the OSU group’s primary research interest. In addition, we are also participating in the preparation of future experiments. Profs. Gan, Kagan, and Kass are members of the ATLAS pixel group and RD42, a CERN R&D project. Prof. Honscheid is a member of the BTeV collaboration. The timeline presented in Table 1 assumes that BTeV moves forward. Should BTeV fail to get an endorsement by the P5 review scheduled for this fall his fraction of research time on BABAR will increase to 80% for all 5 years.
Summary Although the charm and bottom quarks as well as the τ lepton were discovered more than 20 years ago there is still much to learn about these particles and their interactions. Running at the luminosity frontier at the Υ(4S) provides the data necessary to reach the next level of understanding in heavy flavor physics. We believe this is important and exciting physics and therefore wish to become members of the BABAR collaboration. As members of BABAR we believe that we can contribute significantly to the future success of this project. Appendix Previous OSU CLEO hardware projects: The Ohio State group has a long list of accomplishments in detector design and construction. Most recently we led the efforts for the CLEO III data acquisition system as well as the silicon vertex detector. The list below provides a brief overview of our hardware contributions to CLEO II and CLEO III.
CLEO III Silicon vertex detector (Gan, Kagan, Kass) Front end electronics design and construction (ASIC) Hybrid design and construction Power Supply System Machining and assembly jigs and ladder holders Data Acquisition and Control (Honscheid) Design and construction of DAQ system Design and construction of slow control system Drift Chamber gas studies (Gan, Kagan, Kass)
CLEO II Mixer/Shaper electronics for CLEO’s CsI calorimeter (Kagan, Kass) High resolution drift chambers (Kagan, Kass) PTL (6 layer straw tube drift chamber system) IVD (3 layer straw tube drift chamber system) VD (10 layer open cell drift chamber) Data Acquisition, Readout electronics (Honscheid)
Previous OSU Physics Analysis Projects: We have contributed to almost every aspect of the rich physics program open to an experiment running in the region of the Υ resonances. Our most recent efforts include the discovery of color suppressed B decays as well as precision lifetime measurements of charmed baryons. Taus: Analyses led by members of the Ohio State group include measurements of branching fractions of the τ lepton, observations of several new rare τ decay modes, a new upper limit on the τ neutrino mass, searches for forbidden decays as well as several measurements of the τ lifetime.
Charm: We have measured the lifetimes of several charmed baryons and mesons, studied semi- leptonic Ds decay, and searched for lepton flavor violation in the charm sector.
Beauty: Our B meson analyses include measurements of branching fractions and polarization in hadronic decays, the observation of color suppressed B meson decays, an improved branching fraction for inclusive penguin decays and several searches for rare decays.
Management/service positions held by members of the OSU group: Spokesperson 1989-1990 (CLEO - Kass) 1999-2000 (CLEO - Honscheid) 1995-present (RD42 - Kagan) Analysis coordinator 1984-5 (CLEO-Kass) Project Manager 1995-2000 (CLEO III Silicon - Kagan) 1995-2000 (CLEO III DAQ - Honscheid) PDG 1995-2002 (B physics - Honscheid)